Space Carnival

It is starting to reach that busy time of year when people can’t quite keep up with everything that needs to get done.

If you, like me, are looking for ways to procrastinate on writing reports, preparing Halloween costumes, or preparing for a mid0term (writing it or studying for it), then I have the procrastination tool for you: a Space Carnival! It’s a small one this week, so you’ll be able to get back to more fruitful ways of procrastination (like cleaning your desk) quickly.

A Babe in the Universe: The Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment (LLRE) told us that the Moon still has a liquid core, verified that Newtonâ€šÃ„Ã´s G is indeed constant, and provided one more test of General Relativity. LLRE also found a huge but little-known anomaly in the Moon’s drift from Earth.Â¬â€ One possible solution involves the speed of light signals reflected from the Moon.

Blue Skelton Publications: â€šÃ„ÃºGreetings, Starfighter. You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.â€šÃ„Ã¹ These words bring back a few things from my childhood. The Last Starfighter is one of my favorite scifi flicks of all time and is quite possibly the best cult classic ever made.

Cumbrian Sky:Â¬â€ As Opportunity and Spirit continue to rove Mars, exploring Victoria Crater and Homeplate respectively, Stuart Atkinson ponders why so many people feel so fascinated by and dedicated to the two “plucky little rovers” which have survived everything Mars has thrown at them – and wonders if they’re the closest he’ll ever get to being a part of an Apollo-type space exploration adventure…

Space for Commerce: I note that a fellow on LiveJournal has coined a great nickname for mechanical counter pressure suits – ‘Squeeze Suits‘.Â¬â€ Includes a picture of Dava Newman modeling a prototype of the Bio-Suit at MIT.